An Introduction.....Blake

I bought a four year old chestnut gelding about six weeks ago from a trainer at the track. I had planned on reselling him eventually because he was young, tall and had no previous injuries. Plans changed after I got to know Blake and found that he's extremely gentle, sweet and very quiet to ride. My mother-in-law rode him for me about two weeks after buying him. He was so good for her. He didn't do anything stupid, could care less about his surrounding and even jumped some stuff we had out back. He's never been taught to jump but he did it like a pro. When I bought him he was thin and in desparate need of a dental visit. He had nasty cuts and open sores in his mouth from eating with wicked sharp teeth. He's even bitten off two small pieces of his tongue. The insides of his lips were chapped and raw (dentist says this was probably from eating weedy hay) and the corners of his mouth were scarred pretty badly.

Blake has taken everything we've done to him like it is no big deal. He's had two sessons of acupunture (slept through both) and has had numberous chiropractic adjustments to try and fix whatever is going on in his neck. He has a nervous "tick" where he tosses his head. He's also very stiff laterally through his neck. So I've also been doing stretching exercises with him daily. Poor guy. I don't know how he could have been left in that kind of condition being such a sweetheart. I'm hoping that once our baby is here and I start riding again, that Blake and I will be good riding partners. I would like to take up eventing again and since he's such a natural over jumps all that we need to see is if he decides he's going to like being an eventer.

Here is Blake when I went to visit him before buying:

This is Blake after he came home with me. He had a day of beauty: This is a month later after being on good pasture 24/7 and lots of healthy feed:
Here he is in his first and only ride (so far) off the track:



And here he is playing in the round pen:
Blake was not a good racehorse, winning only one race....but I like my riding horses like that. It usually means they take to a new career in better fashion!